The Ten Commandments

by Irma Stewart




Table of Contents




Acknowledgment

The author acknowledges indebtedness to the teachings of
Christ Jesus
The Founder of Christianity
and of
Mary Baker Eddy
The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science




Preamble

And God spake all these things, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (Exodus 20:1-2 link)

WHERE, in all the literature of the ages, is the power of divine presence — and four hundred and thirty years of human history — summed up with greater simplicity, and with less regard for human detail, than in this preamble to the Ten Commandments?

The word for Deity employed in the Hebrew text of this opening statement of the twentieth chapter of Exodus is the same as that used by the writer of the first chapter of Genesis — namely, Elohim. Literally it means El — Strong One, and Alah — to swear; to bind oneself by an oath; to assure perpetuation. Hence — The Strong One committed to Self-perpetuity. That the title appears in the plural number — Elohim — does not imply a numerical sense of Deity, but indicates the fullness or all-inclusiveness of the one primal entity.

Thus the Eternal Strong One — complete and all-inclusive — declares: “I, the Ego, the only essence, am the Lord, the one and only Being, your God, which brings order out of chaos, which emancipates, redeems, heals, and saves.”



It is well to remember that the Ten Commandments were presented to an awakened state of thought, symbolized by Moses, which, through the idea of omnipotence, was calling upon Truth to understand more fully the actuality of one power as All-power in the ever increasing complications of daily living.

The antecedents of this state of thought, typified by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had found the idea of one omnipotent presence equal to the demands made upon it because of the primitively simple sense of life in which they were engaged. It was patriarchal. Even in its increased multiplication it retained the character of a family with interrelationships of a comparatively close nature. Such a relatively small unit could take reasonably good care of its own ethics. After all one does not behave too badly to one’s blood brother, to one’s cousin, or even to one’s great-aunt. There is always some interlacing which prohibits too free an exercise of injustice or of other evil inclinations.

It does not follow, of course, that the children of Jacob were an altogether harmonious household. Undoubtedly there were reasonable checks and balances, however, within the handful of seventy persons comprising this family when it arrived in Egypt.

But alas! four hundred and thirty years in a land, first of allurement, and then of bondage, had greatly blurred the clarity of spiritual focus — thereby adding numbers to the group, and complications to its human relationships. By the time of the Exodus, the Israelites, numbering six hundred thousand, had undergone the change from a family to a tribal state. Concurrently, the spiritual insight whereby the patriarchs once comprehended the presence of the Eternal Strong One, had become vague and none too highly valued. More than four centuries of a human sense of things had introduced complications which, as Moses apparently felt, called for orderly measures if his civilization were to survive.

The importance of a code defining and emphasizing the monotheistic idea, and consequently upholding the highest possible standard of social intercourse commensurate with the age, came to him with so much force that the altitude of thought indicative of such vision was ever after to be referred to as Mount Sinai — the Cliffs of the Lord.

Moses was a Levite, and not therefore of the tribe of Judah. He was nevertheless a Hebrew, a descendent of Abraham, and a firm believer in the value of those inspirational experiences which had revealed to Abraham-the-Hebrew the spiritual necessity of walking ever mindful of divine Presence, and so being perfect. (Genesis 17:1)

In the unfolding of the monotheistic idea, the time was to come, when a greater than Moses would arise. We of to-day know that “the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did” (Hebrews 7:19); “For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ” (John 1:17).

Rules merely for the regulation of human relationships have not brought, and cannot bring in a better hope. However, by starting from the Christly, universal premise, one experiences more and more the indivisible hereness and nowness of perfection, and it is thus the stark ugliness of human misconception dims and fades away.

Nevertheless, the Ten Commandments, which were the direct outcome of Moses’ realization that the “I” or Ego is the Lord, the one and only Being, furnished the rules by which the twelve tribes of Israel were able to preserve monotheism — and incidentally that which appeared as themselves — while they sojourned successively in barren, hostile, and alluringly evil states of human belief.

Notwithstanding their reward and punishment clauses, these rules are so simple, so direct, and so profound that they lend themselves to a less personal and highly spiritual illumination, as readily as the recesses of a valley yield their gloom to the rising sun.

Seven of these ten rules begin with the words “Thou shalt not”, and the remaining three might also create a dictatorial or arbitrary impression for the one having a humanly projected concept of Jehovah. But in the light with which the loving Christ-understanding baptizes its experience, the commanding, restrictive, forbidding aspects dissolve, and the words “Thou shalt not” usher in an aurora of joyous awakening, wherein experience is bathed in a tender glow of perfection, and there is no possibility of breaking even the least of one of these commandments, nor of teaching men so to do. (Matthew 5:19).

It is thus the forbidding “Thou shalt not” aspect of these sublime rules for glorified living fades before the assurance: — Because thou art the beloved of the one “altogether lovely” (Song of Solomon 5:16) thou canst not offend, but art forever held the cherished one — pure, perfect, indivisible, complete, all-inclusive, satisfied.

In this spiritual sense of obedience there is no suggestion of an obeyer and an obeyed, because lawful conformity is a subjective experience. Doing surrenders a sense of human performance for the mental activity of being divine awareness itself; and innate oneness of perfection is confirmed by perfection.



An analysis of the Ten Commandments in the light of this Christly awareness shows that conformity to the first commandment constitutes conformity to all, since the remaining nine merely deal in detail with the observance of the first.

That Christ Jesus saw this is clearly set forth in his divine summary of the Commandments, to be found in the twenty-second chapter of Matthew: 37-40, and again in the twelfth chapter of Mark: 29-31. In Mark we read:

“The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; the Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”

It must have been this same Christ-revelation which enabled Jacob, after his Peniel experience, to declare to Esau: “I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God” (Genesis 33:10). Was not this divine idea of loving one’s neighbor as one’s true self also the experience of Job who, through learning that his own right hand could save him, understood how to pray aright for his friends? And again, of the prodigal son who, abandoning identification with the human concept, thereby “came to himself”?

To understand fully the meaning of the Master’s summary requires pure spirituality of concept — Love looking into the purity of its own Being, and beholding (being wholly) itself. Therefore to reveal the full effulgence of these ten assurances, and of their Christly summary, is not within the scope of a creed, nor the range of a book. It must be the experience of living Love as the infinite All of existence. Accordingly, it is the hope of the author, that with the help of these pages the reader may discover treasures new and old, amplifying and confirming his own unfolding joy, which the willing conformity to divine law invariably entails.




The First Commandment

One Presence

Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3 link)

THERE are three questions natural to the modern reader of this First Commandment, namely: To what does the me refer; what is the character of this me; and how, in the light of the Christ teaching, may conformity be experienced? Let us consider them in their order.

First: To what does the me refer? May we not regard it as referring to its antecedent Elohim, The Strong One Committed to Self-perpetuity, mentioned in the Preamble? Since the me is a translation of the Hebrew panim, meaning my face, or my presence, the passage virtually reads: Before my Presence, thou shalt have no other gods.

Here is an affirmation of egoistical oneness, outside of which nothing can be recognized, and within which all is subject to the character of this oneness.

Second: What is the nature of this Presence? Out of the experience of the bush that burned with fire and was not consumed, Moses asked for the identity of Elohim, and was given the appellation “I AM THAT I AM”. Hebrew scholars appear to regard this as synonymous with I am the unlimited, unsearchable, infinite Ego. But Moses also understood God to be incorporeal and self-sufficient; before whom he hid his sense of personal corporeality as unworthy, and in whose presence he understood no man could continue to regard himself as mortal and separate. (Exodus 33:20). Prior to the presentation of the Commandments we find this infinite Presence precluding the dualistic title of Jehovah, and declaring Himself God the Almighty, or Elohim Shaddai (the sufficient). This is not borne out merely by deliverance from the bondage of Egypt, but by the experiences of Abraham who “went out, not knowing whither he went” (Hebrews 11:8); of Isaac the child of promise; and of Jacob whose sense of life was preserved, and whose character was necessarily spiritualized through seeing Elohim face to face. Exodus 6:2-3 states:

“And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord: And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them.”

It follows, therefore, that the God which appeared to Moses, and to which he authoritatively referred as “I AM” must have been something more than the mere awareness of existence. It is declared to be an egoistical conscious Presence, all-powerful, eternal, infinite, self-sufficient, hence wholly incapable of such human weaknesses as penury, pettiness, periodicity, procrastination, or other personal idiosyncrasies. Such is the Ego before whose presence no theory of lesser entities can be admitted, and whose oneness is acknowledged as the basic ALL of existence.

Third: How, in the light of the Christ teaching, can conformity be enjoyed? Christ Jesus defined compliance with the First Commandment as loving the “I AM” with all the heart, and all the Soul, and all the Mind (Matthew 22:37). Since the office of the Christ is always in beholding (being wholly) the perfect concept — the all-inclusive perfection which knows nothing outside infinite spiritual reality — that which suggests that life is hard, a struggle, and possibly not worth living, is duality, hence the seed of death itself. But the marvel of conformity to divine law is that the spiritual activity of spontaneously, lovingly acknowledging divinity as the only presence and power, humanly appears as effortless harmonious continuity.

Human intellectuality deludes and transports itself to the hard glittering bluffs of loneliness and verbosity. True awareness is forever simple, direct, lucid, and tender.

All experience, in its true essence, being the image and likeness of the one eternal, infinite Ego, there is no good but divine good, no presence but spiritual presence, and no consciousness but eternal infinite self-awareness. Seeing this essential One, acknowledging this essential One, experiencing this essential One, is sublime all-inclusive withinness. It knows no opposite. And to allow this infinity of Being to unfold as one’s own universe, one’s enthusiasm, satisfaction, life, and never ceasing delight in reality, is not to be concerned with goals. Infinity is. To let it be because it is, constitutes true wisdom, forever justified of her children.

Thus, by identifying oneself as the divinely mental activity of loving the one Ego with all the heart, and all the Soul, and all the Mind, one sees that this infinite all-inclusive perfection is universally expressing itself as one all-encompassing being. Herein the word neighbor of Christ Jesus’ summary already quoted, becomes an impersonal non-objective concept — even the fullness of divine completeness, “like unto” the first command — i.e. the only ever-presence of the divinely essential One.




The Second Commandment

No Objectivation

Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:4-6 link)

THE one Ego, the only divinely conscious entity, being the basis of all reality; the genius to know spiritually, and the knowing, constitutes the infinite All.† Hence, the acknowledgment of the oneness of existence is not the victim of a theory of separate entities, personal prerogatives, private minds, but must necessarily enjoy indivisible, all-inclusive oneness as the very law of experience. Such acknowledgment, forever perfect, clear, intelligent, tender; does away with a hampering sense appearing as channels. Directness and simplicity are characteristic of Truth. Precluding a sense of “through” from spiritual realization, the theory of mediumship vanishes, and oneness prevails. The directness of oneness obliterates process and all impedimenta.

Herein is shown the utter impossibility of engraving images in consciousness and of idolatrously bowing down before them. Human outlining, planning, fearing, anticipating, worshipping, are mere dimensional, objective picturing — the dream workings of an imperfect concept of what constitutes real living. Being infinite, self-perpetuating, and ever-present, allness has no element outside itself to limit its activity, and nothing conflicting within its consciousness to disintegrate or overthrow it.

The self-containment of allness constitutes its infinity; and the infinite All, being forever its own satisfaction, no symbolism is required for that which acknowledges infinity. Neither is there any possibility of, nor need for, a reflection of a reflection inasmuch as reflection is not an entity in or of itself. Reflection being the operation of Principle, — the living of Life, — the awareness of Mind, — it is Principle, Life, Mind doing its own reflecting, operating, living, being.

Consciousness, aware of its own infinitude, is not subservient to that of which it is conscious. All spiritual appreciation is necessarily free from such superstition since spiritual appreciation is divine self-appreciation — perfection beholding perfection — Love loving itself.

Idolatry and ritualism are the children of objectivation. Conversely, the law of perfection is subjective. It is a zealous* law, egoistically admitting evidence only of Truth. It may appear humanly to operate as an overturning, and an overturning, until its own perfect nature is seen and acknowledged; but all the while it tenderly cherishes, and is ever mindful of its own.

† Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 465:17-1. link

* The word jealous of the Second Commandment in the Hebrew text is qanno, meaning zealous.




The Third Commandment

Right Identification

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. (Exodus 20:7 link)

TAKING the name — the character of God — is never futile, never in vain. Such right identification is experienced as a tender, undivided, and all-inclusive withinness evidencing itself humanly as the surrender of a personal, material sense of self, with all that sense’s limitation and opposition. To surrender a sense of process, of course, is never an actual experience, but is the human appearance due to a more spiritual acknowledgment of what is really going on. Therefore, acknowledging oneself to be the awareness of the one infinite Ego is a mental operation which is never futile, never in vain.

To regard oneself as humanly individual is a false peace — it is to heal “the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 6:14). A relative, imperfect sense of self based upon the suggestion of a divided, material, vibrating origin, is the vanity of human self-dramatization. That which acknowledges the nature of true being is Truth acknowledging itself. Obviously one cannot think of one’s essence as divine, and simultaneously regard oneself as human, mortal, or material.

Right identification is progressively its own satisfaction, because it does not require a personal identifier. It is understood to be the one Ego doing its own identifying, feeling, being. And by that very activity one is, and rejoices to be, whatever actually is.

Herein is dominion, power, and glory; since the realization of what constitutes reality comprises the true and faithful image and likeness of reality; manifesting, perpetuating, rejoicing in universal omniscient grandeur, loveliness, abundance, and poise.

Right identification places one’s sense of self beyond the human concept of locality, time limitations, and personal entities. Such divinely mental activity is not taking the character of God in vain, but is of necessity ascribing to spiritual presence the honor and glory of everlasting perfection. It destroys all peace in false identification, and reveals the poise of Soul.




The Fourth Commandment

Effortless Being

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. (Exodus 20:8-11 link)

HERE is a clear declaration that pure spirituality of concept does not include the recognition of process. In the first chapter of Genesis the six days of unfolding awareness are described as the progressive experience of forsaking dimness and misapprehension for clarity and light — passing from evening into morning. These six days are states in a sense of liberation. It is noteworthy that the seventh day has no evening experience. It does not start out from a belief of obscuration, but is the full all-inclusive effulgence of divine glory, indivisible, complete, satisfied.

Process appears when divine completeness is viewed through the theory of time, space, and multiplicity of entities. That which believes in incompleteness is the incompleteness — an admission of immaturity, labor, process. “When I was a child, . . . I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things”. (I Corinthians 13:11).

The ceaseless admission of all-inclusive perfection constitutes dominion, and is an all-important phase of appearing to do things well, and with dispatch. Human suggestion notwithstanding, the acknowledgment of the presence of effortless, spontaneous Love, takes care of all arguments for the necessity of laborious attainment.

The Fourth Commandment extends its assurance of processless presence to everything which appears to constitute one’s experience — even to that which has been termed the “stranger that is within thy gates”. It shows that no false theory of stupidity, obscuration, dullness, can be admitted for oneself or for one’s universe.

The serene understanding that all true awareness wells up from within the fullness of one’s own innate completeness, wipes out any dualistic theories of a material, personal, obstructed or obstructing existence. Progressively to be this processless activity is to love the Sabbath Day, and thereby be a law unto oneself for keeping it holy.




The Fifth Commandment

One Origin

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. (Exodus 20:12 link)

HONORING the divine origin of existence is Life eternal. The divine fatherhood and motherhood being one complete whole, to honor this holiness of Life, is to live ever mindful of its presence, and so evidence perfection. Such living requires the rejection of all material testimony arguing for a beginning and an ending.

According to Jesus’ statement (John 15:1-2), divine fatherhood is the husbandman of existence — a law of harmonious activity to its universe, by reason of which every suggestion claiming to be thought, but which does not bear witness to divinity, is obliterated through the acknowledgment of spiritual perfection as origin; and every thought which does bear witness to perfection is cherished and magnified.

True motherhood is divine, not personal. It shows forth the Love which does not see mistakes. It is the primal power, conscious only of its own, and accordingly perfect in expression, whereby evil reveals its obliquity, and that of its objectivation termed matter. Divine motherhood is Love itself, evidencing indivisibility and tender completeness. Because it is wholly spiritual it is free from dissatisfaction, discouragement, despair, disintegration. The understanding of perfect motherhood prevents fear.

Human relationships are based upon the divisibility of personal sense, attempting to break up the absolute oneness of infinite divine understanding. Jesus taught that they which do the will of God “the same is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Matthew 12:50). In other words, a spiritual sense of values should be the basis for amity, rather than mortal blood relationships, or so-called personal affinities.

Commemoration and undue ceremonial recognition of human events are included in these earth-weights holding to a sense of person, place, and time. A willingness to loose all such false tie-ropes, and to recognize the spiritual nature of all things, is honoring one’s divine origin, and thereby oneself.

Such is the oneness of Being, which rightly identifies that which appears as human, and passes all experiences under the rod of correct identification into the fold of loving inclusion, thereby freeing them from the elements of false human material classifications. By honoring this infinite completeness subjectively, one is the experience of Life, without beginning or ending, without interruption, termination, or limitation.




The Sixth Commandment

Self-Perpetuation

Thou shalt not kill. (Exodus 20:13 link)

INFINITE inclusion is infinite self-perpetuation. There is nothing in the divine universe which is, or which needs to be excluded. To believe in the possibility of death or extermination is not to understand the spiritual nature of existence. Acknowledging the ever-presence of all-pervading perfection is infinite inclusion, and thereby a law of painless exclusion to the suggestion of external evil, or of internal strife.

The Christ-withinness is egoistical. It knows no opposite and never can know any. Hence, one is never dealing with evil realities and entities, but with the suggestion that evil is real and has entity. The eternal sense of Life is an infinite inclusive sense — forever perpetuating itself. It is not human but divine. It neither excludes nor is excluded. To doubt this is to doubt one’s eternality, for “I and my Father are one” (John 10:30).

Any attempt to choke the Word is an attempt to pervert, silence, or limit divine unfoldment. Truth cannot be regimented. It is forever unfolding itself as infinitely versatile. “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

Whatever claims to be wrong has no history, and it can have no effect provided it is not admitted as part of one’s selfhood, either as one’s own experience, or the experience of that which appears as another. For there is nowhere in the universe a power either in reality or in belief, attempting to be detrimental or destructive. Personal sense, feeling that it is on the decline, may appear to make desperate attempts to perpetuate its fictitious existence. Mortality being distraught over its own limitations, it is imperative that one understand himself as not taking part in its fiction.

Dominion is experienced in the understanding that false belief can be excluded on the basis of its no-thing-ness, no-whereness, no-time-ness. Even the suggested presence of evil may be annulled through understanding the all-inclusiveness of infinite ever-present perfection.

Continuity is effortless, having no affinity with time, place, or personal sense. Impersonal hereness and nowness is spiritual poise, which holds within its scope all good.




The Seventh Commandment

Purity

Thou shalt not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14 link)

PURITY is the essence of Being. Adulteration is the belief that opposites can be mixed; that the divine can be correctly evaluated in human standards; that so-called material evidences are spiritual demonstration; or that Soul is expressed by, or through, personal sense.

The immaculate conception is conceiving of everything from the standpoint of one indivisible all-inclusive perfection. There being no duality in oneness, the verity of one indivisible existence is as imperative as the all-inclusiveness of Being. Any attempt to take a half-way position in acknowledging the facts of reality results in failure. Truth is absolute.

There can be no successful attempt to reconcile Spirit with matter. The former is reality, and the latter, being a misconception of reality, exists merely as shadow, without actuality.

That which demands a human sign is an adulterous generation thinking to prove Spirit by matter. Adulteration is under the doom of failure, while oneness is a law of fulfilment to itself. The belief in the possibility of adulteration indicates a misapprehension of the character of true Being. Spiritual reality knows no relative necessities, and no necessary relatives. The purity of oneness is its fullness and allness, with no desire for substitution, no necessity for compromise, and no occasion for concession.

To regard Life as terminating in death, Love as subject to hate, Truth as reversed by falsehood, is adulteration; since it is to start from the admission of two powers, two laws, two entities, i.e. good and evil — an admission forbidden to man forever.

Religious psychology, whereby faith-effects are procured, is not spontaneous, unadulterated awareness of indivisible spiritual perfection. Spirituality is not optimism. It is demonstration — i.e. divine understanding, poised above the din of mass-mesmerism.

Through the hypothesis of minds many, persons multiple, entities numerous, the suggestion of divisibility seeks to perpetuate itself. Dishonesty or ignorance is the basis of such dogma. The all-inclusive One never divides and therefore does not profane itself.

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? (II Corinthians 6:14). Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; . . . For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:29-30)




The Eighth Commandment

Completeness

Thou shalt not steal. (Exodus 20:15 link)

THERE is no usurpation in Spirit. Matter is the would-be thief of divine authority, and its theoretical basis constitutes all that appears to reverse and pervert spiritual completeness. To acknowledge the allness of experience is to have no sense of acquisitiveness.

Spiritual understanding is the tangibility of substance. It is divine and not human, therefore unerring and instantly available as one’s only experience. There being nothing external to infinite Spirit, divine substance is indivisible, limitless, ever-present good, and therefore not subject to beliefs of getting or losing.

The suggestion of being robbed is just as erroneous as the suggestion of robbing, and vice versa. Any belief in robbery is a belief in external, dimensional substance. Such usurping beliefs are not founded upon fact, but are the perverted concepts according to a human sense of possession.

Loss is felt in regarding divine verities as personal and material. In understanding the truth of subjective being, one does not lose, but gains the loving ever-present Christ-sense of all things.

The possibility of detachment is not to be admitted. It implies duality. The divine, being all, there is nothing else going on, and therefore nothing to detach or from which to be detached. The acknowledgment of one indivisible Being is the way to rid oneself of detachment.

Neither is retaining divine, because one is not an accumulator nor involved in the theory of accumulation. Likewise, in divine completeness there can be no encroachment, infringement, intrusion, or invalidation. Acquisitiveness and prohibition also are human theories. Whatever claims to war against divine perfection is a belief-usurper of human peace, and a perverted pretense of reality, which would “turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High” (Lamentations 3:35).

Divine awareness knows not the moth of time, the restriction of space, or the division of personal sense.

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Matthew 6:19-21)




The Ninth Commandment

Divine Evaluation

Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. (Exodus 20:16 link)

TRUE witnessing is spiritual evaluation. It does not classify its universe according to the seeing of the eye, nor the hearing of the ear, but judges righteous judgment. It is not deluded by physical sense testimony. It keeps to the essential One.

Misapprehension is aberration; a multiplicity of concept, the basic error of which is objectivation. It leads to inexactness, falsification, frustration, confusion. A misapprehension of what constitutes one’s neighbor is a misapprehension of what actually constitutes oneself. Aberration becomes impossible when one does not permit the false suggestion that one is a human person experiencing an external collectivity of entities or of events, to operate.

The suggestions of independent entities and of external experiences of a personal, material, and possibly destructive nature do not belong to God — or to man, the awareness of God.

In all the vastness of infinitude there never existed a misapprehension about anything, because there is no mind to misapprehend. There is no accuser and no accused. Existence never has been subject to the vagaries of misapprehension. Mindless existence is non-existence. It is a false sense which finds fault — and false sense is non-sense.

The human tendency to believe that something is going on outside of us, in the world or in some other person, is objectivation — the error of duality developing the theory of plural entities. “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord” (Mark 12:29). The only thing needed is to reject the suggestions attempting to present a fictitious picture.

To think of neighbor as one of an objective, external, divisible collectivity of entities is to have other gods before divine Being. It is the basic false accuser building up a false supposititious experience. God being One, and this One, ALL, that which is termed neighbor, showing forth certain aspects of divinity, is primarily within infinite Oneness.

With one entity, and that one divine ever-present perfection, that which acknowledges the Truth of Being must be Truth doing its own acknowledging. And that which does not bear witness to the Truth of Being is nothing bearing witness to itself.

Truth is permanent, spontaneous, poised, and perfect. Consistently to acknowledge this tender loving fullness of Being, is to be one’s self. Thus divine evaluation is the prerequisite for experiencing Love — Love which is reality and All.




The Tenth Commandment

Satisfaction

Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s. (Exodus 20:17 link)

SATISFACTION knows no privation, no seeking, no longing, wishing, wanting, striving, and no acquiring. The greed for gain is an external, incomplete sense of existence. Neighbor being an aspect of one’s own Being, and not an externality, that which appears as “thy neighbor’s” is not an external private possession, but a symbol of all-inclusive sufficiency.

Man’s Life consists not in an abundant sense of externalities, but is satisfaction itself. It is that Pentecostal impersonal presence which is not approaching spirituality, nor striving for anything. It is proceeding from and as its own divine innate nature. The recognition of this is divine self-sufficiency. It appears with the willingness to surrender unreservedly all human, material, personal anticipations. It casts out fear, and is humanly evidenced as unity, brotherhood, abundance.

This broadening viewpoint, recognizing the universal character of experience, enhances one’s beneficent ability, and Love is found asserting itself as the full unassailable satisfaction of existence.

That which one knows as the very essence of his Being, that which rightly makes one released, joyous, sure, is the law of loving care to whatever one may humanly appear to be.

The suggestion that that which makes life safe or interesting is in externalities, is the serpent of usurpation. Joy and satisfaction are always within oneself. They have nothing to do with doing in the generally accepted sense of that word. They relate directly to how we think about ourselves and about that which we call our universe; in the way we know, accept, reject, understand — i.e. in our mental attitude.

Because Love is forever evidencing itself as the all and only presence, to feel this is progressive unfoldment. It is the wellspring of Life flowing forth from within — the acme of perfection — the substance and satisfaction of Love.



Be still within the presence of thy God.
The poise of Soul is true activity.
In quietness and confidence thy strength
To human sense shall thus appear to be.

There is no object, person, place, or time,
To worship, serve, or suffer thee to fear.
The zeal of that which ever rightly sees
Perpetuates whatever it holds dear.

Thou canst not take God’s holy name in vain.
Thou livest as the ever cherished son.
Complete, and fully satisfied, and dear
To Him who hath Himself all things well done.

Thine origin and premise honored is
As Father-Mother, Principle sublime.
Thus the effulgence of this deathless light
As Life eternal, must forever shine.

Excluding, getting, evidencing wrong,
Adulterating, craving anything,
Is not thy history nor thy Father’s plan
But is the misconceiving of a dream.

To love the Truth for Truth’s own sake alone,
Reveals the joy of undivided Soul
Wherein thy neighbor as thy perfect self
Comprises one complete and perfect whole.

This Christly edict is the Word of God.
The law and prophets thereby are fulfilled.
Thus, greater rule or vision cannot be
Than Love forever witnessing its own.



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Love is the liberator.